Pages

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Harlan Coben thriller "Safe" coming to Netflix

Netflix and Canal+ in France have ordered “Safe,” a thriller from author Harlan Coben starring Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”).
Hall was the star of Showtime series “Dexter” from 2006 to 2013, and in “Safe” will play a British pediatric surgeon raising two teenage daughters, Jenny and Carrie, alone after the death of his wife. The family is seemingly safe inside a gated community when the elder daughter sneaks out to a party and a murder and disappearance follow, changing all of their lives.

Amanda Abbington (“Sherlock”) will also star in the show. Studiocanal’s U.K.-based production company Red will make the series, which will be on Canal+ in France and Netflix globally.

Danny Brocklehurst (“Shameless”) has written the script for the eight-part drama, which is now shooting in the British cities of Manchester and Cheshire.

Bestselling author Coben has moved steadily into TV. His first small-screen project was “The Five” for Sky in the U.K. That show was written by Brocklehurst, produced by Red and acquired by Canal+. “Safe” sees that team reunited.

Netflix acquired “Happy Valley” from Red, but “Safe” will be the production’s first original for the streaming giant.

Coben’s style lends itself to watching multiple episodes, which attracted Netflix, Shindler told Variety. “The serialized nature of this, and Harlan’s way of storytelling, lends itself to streaming. He’s all about the hook of a story,” she said. “After ‘The Five,’ he wanted to write something about family and how we build walls to keep out the bad people, but what if they’re on the inside? It’s about how far you’d go to protect your family.”